Electrochemical feedback on strain dynamics in noble metal nanocatalysts

Abstract The theoretical design of effective metal electrocatalysts for energy conversion and storage devices relies on the structure sensitivity of electrochemical processes to their catalyst materials, assuming the structural integrity during operation. However, theoretical predictions do not necessarily match practical performance. Here, by using high-energy X-ray diffraction from the new Extremely Brilliant Source of the European Radiation Synchrotron Facility (ESRF-EBS) on device-relevant Pd and Pt nanocatalysts during cyclic voltammetry experiments in liquid electrolyte, we quantitatively reveal how different electrochemical processes permanently affect the bulk microstructure of nanocatalysts in a distinctive fashion. The reported structural insights provide experimental access to reactivity descriptors such as adsorption and absorption trends operando. The ease and power of such an experimental approach at new and future beamlines is foreseen to guide computational model description of practical nanomaterials in electrochemical environment while providing a discovery platform toward the study of nanocatalysts encompassing a large variety of applications.